For real. No one needs to tick me off in the near future. I don’t know what exactly God has me going through lately but I can tell you what it’s doing for me. It’s making me so damn strong right now. And slightly pissed off, frankly, which is why I suggest that you all be kind to me. I will come out of this a total badass but the ride is bumpy and not that pleasant. Watch out.

This picture is the view of my car from the back window of the tow truck. This time it’s my starter. Is anyone counting with me? This makes four high dollar car fixes in less than three months. For the record, I am not made of money so in addition to you being nice to me, you need to not need to borrow any money from me.

A guy at the car place asked me, “What’s wrong with your car? Why are you here?” Bless his heart. So I told him. He just kind of sat there with his mouth agape at the word vomit that poured from my mouth, and finally, he snapped his mouth shut and then said, “Good luck. I mean it.” And then he left. Quickly.

There are some positives in this, at least one. Believe you me, I’m looking for them. Six years ago I decided that it would be a good idea for me to have a roadside assistance plan. Being a single female in Nashville makes that a smart idea, right? Today I didn’t have to pay for my tow. I mean, I’ve paid Verizon $3.00 a month for that plan for the last six years but TODAY I didn’t have to pay for that tow truck. That’s some savings right there. When I come up with another positive, I’ll let you know.

In truly happy news, Poppa came home on Saturday. He sounded tired, just plumb worn out, but he’s doing alright. Martie went to visit him right away and when she got there, Poppa was laid out on the couch with their cat, Sonic, in his lap. Poppa isn’t what I call a gruff man necessarily, and he’s always been very kind to all of us, but seeing a virtual Viking of a man with his arms wrapped around a furry gray cat and snoozing was enough to make us all realize that life is a fragile thing. Sonic, often affectionate anyway, was so kind to Poppa, like he knew that he was needed, so he sat stoically in Poppa’s lap, completely upright while Poppa napped.

In other happy news, I realized that I never showed you a picture of Miss Kitty. I took this today. This is how she sleeps although I caught her in mid-yawn. It must be exhausting to be a house cat.

And in unhappy news, Murphy is being relocated. He peed on Kasi Starr’s stuff again. This was after he peed in her gym bag, in my gym bag, in her second gym bag, in Roommate’s gym bag that he left behind, and after he attacked Seamus two nights ago. He cornered him in the bedroom and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and just bit him. Kasi Starr found them and separated them. Murphy acts all innocent when I’m around him, meowing and wanting attention, but lately to get attention he’s been doing more than just tapping me with his claws. He nips at my arm with his teeth, and it seems like any amount of attention is never enough. I probably don’t want to talk about this again, so you’ll understand if I never mention it further.

In conclusion, I’d like to tell you that the hours spent at the car fixing place were spent typing all this up and watching my first ever Clint Eastwood Western. I’ve got say, I didn’t love it. It was awful. I see his appeal, though, so that’s something and I do feel like all of that testosterone oozing out of that movie should make me smarter about my car and perhaps this time I won’t get cheated. That would be awesome.

UPDATE: The guy at the car place knocked $50 off my bill because I questioned some things. Thank you, Clint. I owe you one.

I’m so sorry to hear about Murf! I know you’ve done a lot to try to get him to stop. Maybe you should just make him an outdoor kitty. That’s what my brojo does with his kitties when they act up. They get to live in the nice fenced backyard with kitty houses and everything. I think Murf would love being king of the backyard!